newsmakers

newsmakers

Autopsy: Davy Jones died of heart attack

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.

An autopsy confirms that Davy Jones, star of 1960s band The Monkees, died of a heart attack.

The medical examiner’s office in Martin County, Fla., says authorities completed their examination Thursday morning, a day after Jones was rushed to the hospital.

Toxicology tests could take six or eight weeks, but there’s no sign anything else is to blame for the 66-year-old heartthrob’s death.

Jones rocketed to stardom in the 1960s as a member of The Monkees, a made-for-TV rock band patterned after the Beatles. Though their television show lasted just two years and the group ultimately broke up, they have endured with such chart-topping hits as “I’m a Believer” and “Daydream Believer.”

Bristol Palin to star in new reality series

NEW YORK

Bristol Palin’s home life in Alaska is the subject of a reality series starring the daughter of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Lifetime says it will air 10 episodes of “Bristol Palin: Life’s a Tripp” later this year. The series will explore the pressures of raising her toddler son, Tripp, as she maintains her close relationship with the larger Palin clan, the network said.

The former first daughter of Alaska, Palin became one of the nation’s most-prominent single mothers after the 2008 birth of Tripp. Last summer, a reality series built around her was announced by the Bio Channel but never aired.

Funeral home denies role in coffin photo

NEWARK, N.J.

The owner of the Newark, N.J., funeral home that handled services for Whitney Houston says the home had nothing to do with a photograph that surfaced showing the singer’s body in an open coffin.

But Carolyn Whigham of Whigham Funeral Home and two pastors say they do know who took the photo that ran in the National Enquirer. They just aren’t identifying the person and say that’s up to the Houston family.

Associated Press